Rose
by Cannas
Summary: A love story between a normal street girl named Rose and Raph. Please comment, I'd love to hear some critic too. It's my first time publishing something, and I hope you'll forgive me some grammar faults - I'm not English.
1. Chapter 1

It was a normal morning in New York. The sky was cloudy; some rain drops fell down on the streets. The morning traffic played its song, while bureau worker, school kids, teenager, call girls, homeless people and every other sort of people passed on to their business.

It was nothing unusual this day, except maybe for a certain girl called Rose.

And this girl was me.

I groaned. My head ached terribly, and the flavor of cheap beer in my throat was more than just disgusting. It made me throw up.

I opened my eyes, but when I saw where I was, I closed them immediately. It was no use; once that I was awake, I couldn't ignore the fact that I was lying in a huge mountain of trash. A stinky, dirty mountain of trash. I sighed.

It wasn't that I was very hygienically – after all, I lived on the streets of NYC - but it was still disgusting to wake up in a place like that.

To tell from the location and how I felt, I got drunk the last night (as always), spended my whole money to pay the bill (as always) and ended up in this trash mountain (not as always). That was pretty much everything I could tell about the last night – I had a total blackout, and honestly, I didn't wanted to know it too bad.

I cursed the world, the trash I've slept inside, myself and an innocent bird nearby, while I tried to stand up without getting sick. I hate mornings. And I hate hangovers even more. But who didn't?

I sighed again. With no money left, it wouldn't be easy to find something to eat and a place to take a shower. Still, I got no other choice left than moving on, if I didn't want to be caught by some cops.

Moving on was easier to say than to do. I felt terrible, even worse than normal. I could barely look straight ahead, and I knew, if a cop would see me like that, I'd have a very big problem. But crying wouldn't help, so I moved on, always near the walls at the side of the pathway, trying not to look too drunk and ignoring the looks of the passengers around me – most of them disgusted. But who cared? I didn't mess up their life, they left me alone. That's how life always worked.

I stopped at a shop window to check up on how bad I actually looked. It was worse than expected. I saw a skinny, short girl with short brown hair and grey eyes, wearing dirty clothes; old jeans, way too long, old ragged sneakers, a green T-Shirt and a leather jacket, like the jeans several sizes too big. That was me. I never was a beauty, and I actually never really cared. But today I looked like a zombie.

I had eye rings as black as the make-up of an emo, my skin looked unhealthy and worn out. My hair was a mess, even compared to how it normally looked like, and I smelled awful. I groaned. I didn't just _look_ like a zombie. I felt like one, too.

"Hey, you! Get lost!"

I looked up. A man, a lot bigger and heavier than me, stood there, shaking his fist in my direction. I guessed he was the owner of the shop and afraid some people might think I belonged to him. I wasn't in the mood to pick a fight, so I just pulled a face and got lost.


	2. Chapter 2

_I don't remember why I ran away the first time. But I remember clearly the following night._

_I was about 11 years old, and I ran through the streets, not knowing where to go, and I don't think I cared much about that. Fact is, it was getting dark – and dangerous, especially for a little kid like I was back then. Thanks to god or whoever is responsible, I didn't meet cops or some pedophiles. But I still remember that I met some drunken guys. They made fun of me, and one of them gave me a bottle. I didn't know what was inside, but I drank it. That was what I learned first: If a guy gives you something to drink, take it. Of course, there are guys trying to get you drunk to mug you or worse, but the first bottle is usually safe. Soon, I got scared of the guys – they were a lot older than me and drunken – and I ran away. That was the second important thing I learned: If they are stronger - and it usually doesn't matter who they are – run away. Not because I was a coward, though. I just wanted to survive, like everyone else on the street too._

_Back then, I tried to stay up the whole night, simply because I was too scared to sleep. There were so many things I didn't knew yet, so many things that scared me. And so many things I loved from the start. Like the love between a homeless man and his dog. He had nothing but a simply blanket to share with his pet – and he shared it with it._

_Later, I fell asleep in some corner of the street. Nobody mugged me, but in the morning some cops wake me up and brought back to where I ran away from. _

_But I knew I'd go back to the street, and I was right._

It was getting late. I knew it, and that's why I was looking for a place to sleep for some hours. I couldn't manage to get money that day, so I wasn't drunk as usual. Though I wished so. It was so much easier to get through life when you can't think straight forward.

I was wandering like that for a while, when I heard something really odd. A noise like something got smashed. Nothing special? Well, I was alone in the whole street. What meant that there could be somebody I couldn't see. And there was nothing more dangerous than an enemy you can't see.

I stepped back into a darker corner, though I didn't hear anything after the noise. But I never liked risking my life for nothing, so I stayed in the shadows for a while. And then I heard somebody talking, somewhere above my head. I couldn't see them, though.

"Idiot! The Kraang are after us and you smash everything that comes near you!"

"Sorry -"

"Guys, stay silent. Let's move on."

I heard a noise when something – or better said somebody - jumped from one roof across the street to the roof on the other side. Four times. Then a noise like running feet. After that, everything was silent. I stayed in the shadow. _It couldn't be._ I had a glimpse on the guys who jumped over the roofs. And I saw _shells._

Shells. Turtle shells. I was nuts. It was simply impossible that I heard talking Turtles. Seriously, I shouldn't drink anymore. Or I should drink more, after all I saw those guys while being sober. Yes, I should drink more.

I figured out a place to sleep – I broke into a warehouse, thank god that thing had no alarm system – and decided to forget what I saw. It simply was a hallucination, like back then, when I thought I saw Spiderman in the city. (Ok, actually, I was high back then, but still) Those guys were some normal humans who thought it was funny to jump from one roof to another. What were they talking about again? Kroong? Kreeg? Something like that didn't exist, so I probably heard things. After all, it was my first night being sober after months.

I sighed. I was thinking too much. Who cared what I saw or heard? They didn't attack me, so I should just forget them.

And that was what I did. At least basically.

Time went on, and I didn't think about the guys from the roof, and when they came up into my mind, I just chased those thoughts away like annoying flies. Like this, weeks passed on without an incident – until the day I did something stupid. Very, very stupid.

I was drunk, as normally, and it seemed to become a normal day, until a certain guy entered the bar. He was a wardrobe – heavy, big and a face like he slammed a wall with it. And with him three other guys, all of them drunken. From their talk I figured they got chased out of a bar because they made trouble. I knew guys like them, and so I just ignored the noise they made – and they made a lot of noise – and continued drinking.

I sat in front of the barkeeper, like I always did. When one of the men ordered drinks at the bar, he came close to me and I could smell him. He stank even worse than that trash I wake up in weeks ago, but I kept my mouth shut. Suddenly one of the guys who sat at a table shouted:

"Hey, Ray, how 'bout bringing that chick next to you along?"

They laughed. I ignored them. No matter how drunk I was, I would never pick a fight with guys like them. I wasn't that stupid. Though the guy called Ray didn't care about my philosophy.

"Come on girl, how 'bout joinin' us?"

It seemed like I failed being smart, 'cause I did something really, really, stupid. I talked back.

"Get lost, scum."

Silence. In this moment I realized what I did. And I could've hit myself for it. I blinked up to Ray. His face had an ugly expression.

"What did ya just say?"

He didn't wait for an answer. He just hit my face like a punching bag, and I flew - I swear – two meters away, until a desk catched me.

"Stop it! No fighting in my bar!"

I sended a thankful look to the barkeeper. When the men didn't back-up, he raised an eyebrow. "I'll call the police immediately, if this won't end here and now." Thank god the guys didn't wanted trouble with the cops and left me in peace. Well, at least that's what I thought.

I stayed in the bar until - honestly, I don't remember how late it was. Pretty late. Maybe too late. The guys hadn't left yet too. And if I had been a bit smarter, I would've known what was coming. But I was drunk and sleepy, and so I just left without complaints when the barkeeper was closing his bar.

I went down some streets without paying attention where I was going. Actually, I didn't pay attention at anything. And that was why I recognized very late that that Ray from before was following me. First I acted like I still haven't noticed and tried to get him off my trail, but he followed me without losing space. O no. He even started to catch up to me. I went faster, and by then he must've recognized I knew he was there. I tried a last time to shake him off, turned into a side street – and froze.

I was trapped.

Another guy from before stood there, moving towards me with a grin all over his ugly face. And I knew that the other three guys were around too. There was no way to get out of there.

I was going to pay for my stupidity.

It was a situation like in one of these books kids loved to read. The heroine trapped, going to be saved or beat the evil guys up. The heroine would be brave, like, well, a heroine.

But I was no damn heroine. I was a drunken street girl and I was scared. Better said: I was about to panic.

I forcefully tried to stay calm, but I could feel my heart racing. The guys surrounded me, and I was unable to do anything. How I hated such moments. But, they were part of this life, so I had to deal with them.

"Hey girl. I guess ya remember me?"

"How could I ever forget. Didn't you send me flyin' before?"

They laughed. It was fun for them, and I knew, it would be even more fun for them to make me cry. Slowly, so I wouldn't catch their attention, I moved my hand towards my jeans pocket, where my knife was.

"Ya know, I didn't understand whatcha' said before. How about replying it for me and my friends?"

I gulped. The situation was about to escalate.

"I don't remember, guys. I was drunk, still am."

They didn't buy it. Of course not.

"Ya know…I think ya makin' fun of me. And ya know what too? I'll teach ya some respect!"

With the last word, he punched me in the stomach. I cracked, but managed to ram my knife into his hand. He screamed and I kicked him away from me.

"Bitch!"

Damn. Forgot the other three ones. They were fast and – most importantly – strong. One of them smashed my head against a wall nearby. I blacked out for a second. When I came back to my senses, the guys started kicking me. I curled myself, trying to protect myself as good as I could.

They stopped. A guy of them grabbed me and pressed me against the wall with one hand, the other hand raised to punch me in the face.

"I'm gonna decorate your face with a smashed nose. How does that sound to you, scum?"

Bad. It sounded really bad to me.

The guy grinned. Yes, he really enjoyed beating up a helpless girl. Out on the streets, that was normal. I often saw people getting beaten up and I learned to accept it.

I closed my eyes and waited for the punch.


	3. Chapter 3

_Ok, that part sucks, and I wrote it about a million times, but I don't get it right. Sorry to be such a failure. Please comment and tell me what I'm doing wrong!_

It felt like somebody hitted me with an iron staff. But, probably, even that would've been more comfortable. My head smashed against the wall, and I felt my nose break. This moment, I wondered if my nose would ever get its formal state again or if I'd have to deal with some bloody lump in my face forever.

I still remembered the guy dropping me, and heard the men walking away. They laughed.

The next moment, I lost my consciousness.

"That looks bad."

"She looks worse than simply bad."

"What are we gonna do with her?"

"Man, look at her face, it's all – "

"Mikey! Let that –"

I opened my eyes. Right in front of me, just some inches away, was a face. Of something that looked like a turtle. Or a human? Something between, I guess. Green skin, blue eyes, a mouth and something that reminded me of a nose. And a shell on the back. When I opened my eyes, the turtle-or-human backed off. He wore an orange bandana, like some sort of ninja. I stared at him. What sort of freak was he?!

"She's awake, guys!"

I carefully looked up – my head ached terribly –and saw three other turtles. They all wore such bandanas. And, more importantly, they had weapons.

Not like the weapons they guys I knew used, though. A staff, swords and some sort of forks. The orange guy had something like…well, I guess they're called nunchucks. But I wasn't sure about that.

I tried to get my knife, just in case – but it was gone. I must've lost it during the fight with Ray and his friends.

"Are you okay?"

I looked up. The guy talking to me wore a blue mask; he was the one with the swords. I pressed my back at the wall I was lying at. Those freaks or whatever they were, were really scary. Damnit- they weren't supposed to exist! I felt like I was in some sort of cheap alien invasion movie, except the fact _that_ was real.

The turtle-guy seemed to know what I was thinking.

"Don't worry. We don't want to hurt you." He spoke quietly and slowly, like someone would with a frightened dog. "My name is Leonardo, and these are my brothers; Raphael, Michelangelo and Donatello. We want to help you. I know, since we're mutants, it's not easy to trust us, but we're not monsters."

Mutants. Suddenly something made _Pling. _That we're the guys I heard on the roof, several weeks ago. So I actually was right – I saw shells that night.

I stayed silent, still not knowing whether I should scream for help or not. But, who'd hear me here?

I watched Leonardo and his brothers the whole time, nervously watching out for any sort of action. Leonardo spoke again. "Let Donatello" – he pointed towards a tall turtle with a purple bandana - "take a look at your wounds." Donatello smiled, then he kneeled down next to me, reaching out for my hand.

"Stay back!"

I was surprised how energetic my voice sounded. Donatello froze. His fingers were just some inches away from my wrist, and he looked at me. My heart was beating fast now, and I started to feel dizzy because of all the blood I've lost. "Don't touch me."

Donatello looked at Leonardo, like he expected something of him. Leonardo looked at me. "Listen-"

"Let her."

The turtle who spoke wore a red bandana and carried those forks with him. When I looked up to him, he watched me with his green eyes, and I couldn't see even a sparkle of sympathy in them. They were just cold. "We're not gonna help ya. Go ahead and die or whatever you want to do."

"Raph! We can't-" Leonardo glared at his brother. Raphael turned towards him. "Why not? She's treating us like we're monsters, so we can treat her the same way, can we?" He gave me a cold glare. "All humans are like that, except maybe April. I'm not gonna play the hero for somebody who treats me like that." Leo folded his arms. "Raph, we're not helping because for gratitude, we help because it's right!-" He kept on talking, but I didn't listen.

I felt ashamed. This Raphael guy…he was actually right. I couldn't stand the way he talked about me, but he was right. I _did _treat him like some sort of monster, although I didn't knew anything about him. And actually, I must've known the best that there's more than just the appearance of somebody. How often did I get angry when people judged me just by sight? Often. Very often. So what if he was a mutant turtle?

"I'm sorry. You're right; it is unfair to judge you guys by sight." Leonardo stopped to argue with Raphael, and all four looked at me. I stood up, holding onto the wall, trying to control the sickness in my stomach and head. My right ankle seemed to be sprained and I had to limb to move forwards.

I got like that to the corner of the street and was about to turn into another street, when I tripped over a bottle. (I could bet the bottle was a leftover from Ray and his friends, those guys were seriously my personal demons.) I couldn't hold my balance and fell. Miraculously, I didn't fell as deep as expected. A certain turtle catched me. I stared at him.

"You know, you really stink. How much did you drink?", asked Raphael, looking disgusted. I glared at him. "Nice catch, Raph!" The turtle with the orange bandana laughed.

Raphael's brothers gathered around me. "I suggest, we call an ambulance, let her here and leave. They'll take her to a hospital and treat her there."That was Donatello.

A hospital? No way!

"Please don't call an ambulance!" Donatello looked at me. "Why not?"

"I'll get heavy problems! They'll send me straight back to where I ran away from!" I could hear myself how frightened my voice sounded. I didn't care. I didn't want to think about what would happen if I got into the focus of my family or of the state! They would never leave me in peace!

"See, we can't do anything else. You need treatment, no matter how you look at it. If we'd leave you here in this condition, it would make us guilty if you get killed by someone just because you weren't fast enough to run away.", explained Leonardo. "Well, we could carry her home to her parents, and they could take care of her!" That was Michelangelo, the guy with the orange bandana.

"I can't go to a hospital, I have no home or parents. I guess, you have no other choice than leaving me here." If I hadn't felt that bad, I would've been confident. But the way I felt, I just wondered how long I'd be able to survive. A week? Or less? Probably less. I moaned. I t would be good luck if I got through this night without any further problems, and luck was never something I had.

I realized that the turtles were silent. "What's the matter?"

"We decided to take you to our lair, but we can't let you know where it is.", explained Leonardo. I closed my eyes. "Just let me die, guys. I'm done for." I was too tired to fight it. Too tired to fight for my life. Too tired to be afraid of some mutants. Too tired for anything.


	4. Chapter 4

I woke up. I was lying on a hard couch, but I didn't knew how I got there. I moaned. I didn't knew anything. What happened? I sat up, trying to figure out where the heck I was.

"Look who came back from the dead. Ms I-just-wanna-die." I turned my head towards the voice and looked at a mutant turtle. He seemed familiar. Raphael. Everything was back now. The fight with the men; the turtles, telling me they want to help.

Raphael's brothers showed up. "How are you feeling?" Donnie asked. I looked away. "Better than before." Not really. The sickness was nearly gone – I must've slept for some hours to tell from the hangover – but it was replaced with a bad headache. Like somebody was using my head as a drum. I just wanted to fall asleep, but I knew from experience, that I wouldn't fall asleep for the next few hours, at least not without some help.

I sank back on the couch. If there was a thing I hated about my life, it was the fact that I got hangovers nearly every day. And maybe the fact I had to stay outside even in winter. I covered my eyes with my hand, trying to ignore the boys next to the couch.

"You don't seem to feel too good. Do your injuries hurt badly?" Leonardo sounded worried and truly concerned. I looked up to him through my fingers. "Not the injuries. I just got a heavy hangover." The turtles looked curious now. "How does a hangover feel?" I stared at Leonardo. "You don't know how a hangover feels?!" The turtles looked at each other. "We never drink alcohol. Splinter forbid us to, and we actually never had the desire to anyway." Donatello spoke the truth. I could see it in their eyes.

"How old are you guys again?" "We turned sixteen some months ago." I looked at them. "And you seriously never drank alcohol? You're weird." They didn't go on it. "So, how does a hangover feel?" I moaned. "A hangover feels really, really bad. You get a headache, you react sensitive to noise and light, and you just want to die. "

"So you wanna die again? I'm surprised you're still alive with that attitude of yours." I ignored Raphael's comment. I sat back up. "Don't you have better things to do than staring at me?" I didn't mean to be so mean, but they got on my nerves, and, to speak the truth, I felt uncomfortable around them, maybe because they were mutants. I could see that Raphael looked at the other turtles like he wanted to say "I told you!".

This moment, a giant rat came. Seriously, I thought the turtles were scary, but the rat shocked me half to death – though I should've known. "My sons, why aren't you in the dojo yet?" _Sons?_ Was that guy kidding? I looked at the turtles. Nope. Totally serious.

When the rat spoke, they all stood up straight, and after he ended, they bowed. "We're sorry, sensei, but something got between.", Leonardo said. The rat spotted me that moment. "Oh. I didn't know we had a guest. How about introducing us, Leonardo?"

"That's -" Leonardo stopped, looking at me. "We don't know your name yet."

True. Our earlier conversations based on the question how to help me or how I felt, but I never told them what my name was.

"My name's Rose."

Leonardo nodded, then he spoke to the rat. "We found Rose on the street, she was injured. We wanted to call an ambulance or at least take her to her home, but she said she had no home and would get big problems if we took her to a hospital. We decided to treat her here. She fainted after our talk, so she doesn't know where we are and can't tell anybody where our lair is." He turned towards me. "He is our sensei – that means teacher if you don't know it yet – and father, Splinter." I didn't ask how Splinter possibly could be their father; I just looked at the rat. I was ready to hear what had to come. He wouldn't allow me to stay, after all I was a total stranger from the street –

"Did you treat her wounds already?" Donatello nodded. "Her right ankle is sprained and she got a lot of bruises and other little injuries, but I suppose she'll be fine if she rests some days." Splinter nodded. "She can stay here until she's ready to leave. But you still have to train. I suppose she can stay on her own for some time." He looked at me. "You can tell us if you need something. I hope you'll get better soon." He turned to leave. I didn't answer, I was just too surprised. For some reason, he didn't kick me out. He didn't even ask how I got injured.

The turtles left, Raphael was the last. When he came to a door to leave the room he turned his head for a second towards me, then he left.

_He doesn't trust me like the others.,_I thought. Well, I didn't trust him either, so there was no problem. I stood up and started to limb towards something that looked like an exit. It was a big gate that looked like one you could find at a railway station and really, there were rails behind it. I turned around, looking for something worth stealing. I didn't think that those guys had money – how would they spend it? – and I wouldn't try anything food-like they had here, but maybe there was something else useful. I spotted a practical knife – mine was gone after all – and a blanket. I took both things, while paying attention to the room the mutants went into. I could hear the rat shouting something in a language I didn't understand, then the clash of iron weapons. I guessed that the boys were fighting against each other as training, but I didn't really care. All that counted was that they were too busy to figure I was stealing from them.

I took a last look to see whether I forgot something, then I limbed towards the exit.

I figured before that the lair was underground. And when I saw the rails I knew that this had to be more or less an underground station. However; it was really difficult to get out of there. There were no signs telling exit, and it took me some hours to find out of there. But I did it.

When I got back to the surface, the sun was about to set and my ankle hurted. My headache was still there, and I almost wished I had stayed at the lair. Almost. I limbed into a corner that didn't seem to be too cold, sat down and tried ignoring my ankle. I was exhausted and I felt cold, though I've covered myself in the turtles' blanket. Still, I knew I could find some sleep if nobody would wake me up. Before I closed my eyes, I wondered what the turtles did when they found out I left and stole some of their stuff. What did Raphael say? Did he see it coming? I yawned. He wouldn't care too much. I betted he was happy I left, he didn't trust me after all. The worst thing possible could be that they wanted the blanket and knife back and tried to hunt me down. But we were in NYC, after all. It could take years to find a certain street kid there.

I didn't sleep well. When I woke up, I still was exhausted, and I was pretty sure I've dreamed a lot. Though I couldn't remember anything but green, cold eyes and the clash of iron weapons.

I yawned. I was still sleepy, but way to restless to fall asleep again. I decided to get up and move, hoping my restlessness would go away. But first, I checked my right foot. The ankle was covered in gaze, - Donatello's work, I guessed – and the bandage seemed to be pretty stable. My ankle didn't hurt as much as the day before, but I had the feeling that it would hinder me for some days. I moaned. But, what should I do? Shit happened.

I got out on the street. I was able to walk nearly normally with my ankle, I just limbed a little bit. I headed towards the part of the city I usually stayed in. It was one of these areas where nobody asks any questions as long as you pay. An area full of prostitutes, drug dealers – shortly, scum of the society. People who manage to get through life no matter what.

On my way I passed a group of men, surrounding a girl who could've been my age. She was scared; I could see it in her face, though I just had a glimpse on it. "I – I warn you, I learned how to defend myself …! I –I'll call the p-police…!" The men laughed. She had no chance. I slowed a bit down, watching the group. Not long ago, I was in a similar situation. Maybe the turtles would pick her up, too. But, right now they weren't there, so she would be on her own. Bad luck, girl. I moved on before the men could pay attention to me. She wouldn't be fine. I didn't knew what the men were up to, and if it was just about to beat her up, she could call herself lucky. But, luck didn't come there that often. Most likely, the men would do something worse to her.

When I turned into another street, I risked a look back. The girl screamed for help now – and for a second, she saw me and looked into my eyes, begging for help. She had beautiful, blue eyes, almost like the eyes of a kid. Tears were swimming in them. I didn't move. I wouldn't help, and she knew it. The tears poured out of her eyes, which beauty could be the cause of her situation.

I turned, leaving her and her problems behind me. It wasn't my business. I wouldn't risk my safety just to help a total stranger. I wasn't a goddamn hero. I left that job to the turtles – if they had nothing better to do than saving everybody.

I went away, without looking back even once. My ankle hurted again, and I started to feel hungry. I should get some food.


	5. Chapter 5

Time passed by as always. Well, at least almost. I didn't trust any shadows, because I didn't want to meet up with four human-sized mutant turtles. I thought about those guys, though. How could it be possible that they existed? It was just….abnormal. They shouldn't exist. But in the end, it didn't matter. They existed, and, they helped me once. Or twice, if you consider letting things get stolen by you as a help. I did.

I played with the knife I stole from the turtles some weeks ago. I sat in a bar, one of those where you can't see anybody clearly because of all the smoke, where every sort of criminal – from the lowest pocket thief to the bosses of gangs – sealed or broke deals and where money changed the owner pretty fast – not just from customer to bar keeper.

I sat in a corner, a pretty rare joy. The corners were taken fast, because you can't be watched that easily. But I managed to sit down in that one before someone else did. Though some guys tried to chase me away. I acted like I was waiting for someone and snapped the knife to defend my place. They left me alone; though I had the feeling they didn't believe me a word. They were probably just trying to stay in the shadows to protect bigger business. Well, I didn't care.

I rotated the knife with my left hand. It was a pretty good knife, not such a cheap thing I usually carried with me. It was silver, both blade as handle. The mechanism was made to make the blade snap out fast. It was perfect for fighting. I wondered if the turtles used it. But why? They had other weapons, after all.

"Hey, kid. Move!" I looked up. The guy speaking to me could be a grizzly. Full of muscles and always ready to use them. I decided I didn't want to get trouble with him – I could still remember the last time when I talked back to somebody as big and strong as that guy –and left my place. There weren't any other seats free, so I just leaned against a wall, thinking about how I could get some money.

The man brought company. They sat down and started to discuss some business. I moved so they wouldn't think I was listening – such a suspicion could cost my head.

I yawned. I was too tired to steal something without getting caught. I had no drugs to deal or something else to sale. Looked like I would have to spend some days begging.

"Hey, you." I turned my head. The grizzly from before waved his hand towards me. I was surprised. What did he want? I didn't do anything, so why did he talk to me?

"Yeah?" I stopped in front of the table, ready to run off if the situation required it. The man bowed over the table.

"You wanna make some money?" I raised an eyebrow. There were times I was surprised how easy problems can get solved. "Depends on what you want me to do and how much you'll pay me." I wouldn't risk my head for some lousy dollars.

"Just a delivery service. You deliver a packet to a friend of ours, and we pay you -" He looked fast to his seat neighbors. "50$." Whatever I should deliver, it was full of drugs or something else illegal. I thought about it for a second. "Who's your friend, and where do I find him?" The man gave me an address and a name. "And the payment? I want a deposit." The man took out a purse, took a twenty-dollar and a five-dollar banknote out of it and gave it to me. "My friend will give you the other half. Just tell him the crocodile send you." The crocodile? That guy read too many books, but as long as he paid me well, who cared? "So what do I have to deliver?" The man pointed at a little packet on the desk. "Make sure the police doesn't find out about it. And now do your job!" I took the packet and left the bar. It was really small and I wondered what was inside. Maybe I should just open it and sell it for more than 25$? I shook the head. Whatever it was, it was illegal and the police was after it. If I would sell it, I first had to find out who would want to buy it, and that was too risky. I've met enough undercover cops to know that.

The address the man gave me was nearly the other side of the street. If I understood right, I had to deliver it to a guy called Mr. Rookers. I hurried. Maybe I could make that guy pay me more for delivering the packet fast.

I hurried through the city, always with one ear listening for police sirens. I didn't take breaks, and whenever I saw cops on the streets I turned and took another way. Cops always stopped teens like me on the street, especially in the middle of the night.

After one hour or so I was in the part of New York where the building I was looking for should be. Some men turned into the street. I pulled my hood into my face so it stayed in the shadows. When the men passed me, I moved on. I had to find this building and get my money. I turned into some side streets when I finally found the street; I just had to get to that building over there –

"There he is! Get him!" I tripped back. I knew that voice. It was Leonardo. The four turtles surrounded me. Damnit!

They didn't seem to recognize me. "Hey, you. We don't want to hurt you-", Leonardo began. "I actually do.", said Raphael. Leonardo ignored him. "Just hand over the packet." I laughed. "If you pay me for it, I'll do it." The turtles were speechless for a second, then –

"Rose?!" Raphael stared at me, just like the others. I pulled my hood back. "What? Did you think I vanished into thin air?" Leonardo smiled. "OK. Rose, I guess you don't know what's going on. The thing you're delivering is a very valuable, if not to say prohibitive, diamond that was stolen from someone. Just give it to us, we'll return it to the original owner. We understand you didn't meant to do any harm, so -" I looked at him. "Thanks for telling me. I'll demand more money from the guy I have to deliver it to." Silence.

"Rose, that stone is _stolen. _You'll commit a crime if you won't return it to its owner." I still looked at Leonardo, but secretly draw my knife, the knife I stole from them. "I know, Leonardo, but I don't care. Those guys pay me, and that's all that matters to me. But if- " I smiled at Leonardo. "you pay me more than he does, I'll give you the stone." Raphael snorted. "Like we'll pay for the stone. I'll just take it."

He drew his sais. "Hand the stone over and I won't hurt you." I snorted – a cheap imitation of him – and said: "Dude, that's not how the street works." I stepped back, trying to figure out a way to get out of that situation _without_ losing my source of money. Raphael looked at me, and I saw something like disappointment in his eyes. What?

"Why did you have to deliver that thing? I can't beat up a little girl like you." He put his sais back into his belt. "I won't use my weapons, but I want this stone." He went towards me, and dude, he looked scary. I backed off, and I started to feel really uncomfortable. I mean, really _really_ uncomfortable.

Raphael stopped a step in front of my. I couldn't back off because there was a wall stopping me. "Now be a good girl and give me that stone. I promise, I won't beat you up, so - " I spitted in his face. Not to anger him any more, just to distract him long enough to flee.

Unfortunately Raphael wasn't that easy to fool. When I tried to get past him, he just grabbed my arm and pushed me against the wall. "Now that was disgusting. Do I look that ugly to you?" Did I say he looked scary before? Well, I'm taking everything back. Now, he was scary. His eyes were glooming, and he looked at me like he was about to kill me – ignoring the fact I was a little, helpless girl. "Now give me that damn stone." The only logical decision I could make would be to hand over the stone and hope that he wouldn't hurt me.

I didn't give him the stone.

"I don't know why you guys are so much into this whole `We-are-superheroes´-thing, but I want to make money with this stone, and just because you tell me so, I won't give it up that easily." Man, I really sounded sort of brave. Too bad it was just my voice sounding brave; I was so scared like never before…getting beaten up by some drunken guys was way funnier.

Raphael cursed. "Just hand it over!" He grabbed the packet, I tried to prevent him from taking it, the packet slipped through my fingers, and then –

Shatter.

I wasn't some expert when it came to minerals, but even I knew that diamonds didn't break from falling down. I stared at the packet. "What the - ?"

Donatello kneeled down to the packet, opened it – and jumped back. "EVERYBODY DOWN, THAT THING IS A -" I didn't pay attention to what he was saying. Raphael pulled me down, pressing my head into the street. I didn't understand what was going on, but I heard an explosion.

After some seconds, I managed to look up. What the -? The packet was gone. The only thing left was a burned, melted thing, made of plastic and glass. The turtles were lying on the ground, and for a second I thought they were dead. But then they started moving. They were burned, but their skin seemed to be tougher than a human's, so they weren't badly injured. This reminded me about myself. Miraculously, I wasn't burned. And I found out pretty fast why. Raphael was lying next to me, and his arm, which pressed my face into the street, covered my whole head. I stared at him.

"Well, I guess someone got some bad business partners. Maybe he should move into another country before somebody else delivers some hot diamonds." Raphael stood up. I did too. Not like anybody payed attention to me. "We gotta find the guy who has the real diamond. And, if possible, before he delivers that thing to the Kraang." Honestly, I hadn't a clue what they were talking about.

Suddenly, Raphael turned around and grabbed me. "Who gave you the fake stone?" I thought fast. I wouldn't make any more money out of the stone, but maybe I could make the turtles pay for some information.

I looked at Raphael. His eyes were cold.

Or maybe I should just tell them what I knew.

"A guy in a bar. He said his name was `crocodile´. It's obviously a cover, but maybe it'll help you find that guy." Raphael didn't seem to be sure. "Before that thing blew up, you didn't tell us a thing, but suddenly you're so cooperative." I watched a spot somewhere above Raphael's head. "Before, it was about my money. The bomb blew up, and there's nothing left I could deliver. I won't get any money anyway now, so I can tell you everything I know. If there's no profit, there's no reason to risk my head." Raphael snorted, but he let me down.

Leonardo thought. "How are we gonna find this guy? It's nearly impossible." I smiled. I just had a great idea. "Well…you know, I met him once, I might be able to find him a second time." The turtles were surprised and – at least Leonardo, Michelangelo and Donatello –happy. "That would make the whole thing a lot easier." I smiled again. "Of course I'll need some, well, salary, after all I gotta finance my food and so on, I can't work while looking for that guy." When I realized Raphael's look, I quickly added: "Not much, of course, just some dollars, after all I owe you for helping me twice." Three times, if including the knife.

The turtles looked at each other. "We don't have money. But we can help you with finding food and a place to stay if you want. You just have to find that guy in two days, because everything that's after this deadline, is, well, useless." I thought about it for a second. "However. I'll find that guy, and you'll just do me some favors, 'kay? Where do we meet up?" Leonardo told me an address; I made sure to memorize it and turned to leave. If I wanted to find that crocodile, I had to go back to the bar and ask everybody about him. But I hesitated. Feeling uneasy, I looked at the turtles.

"Erm…I just wanted to say…well…thanks." I quickly turned and ran down the street. Time was ticking.


	6. Chapter 6

I ran through the streets, with 25$ less I'd like to have. I moaned. But, to be honest, I should've known it. Who would give a random girl an important packet to deliver? Nobody.

Fact was, I had to find that guy who gave me the packet before two days were up. And that in a city like New York.

I found the bar I met the guy some hours ago, ran in and hoped for a second that the crocodile was still there. He wasn't. As expected.

"Hey." I leaned at the bar, talking to the bar keeper. "Could you help me?" He looked at me. "With what?" I tried to look confident. "See, about two and a half hour ago a guy came in. Tall, full of muscles, with some friends. I owe him some money, and I actually hoped to find him here to give it back, but he disappeared. Do you know where he went off to? " The barkeeper shook his head. "Sorry, girl, but there are so many people here, I can't remember them all." I cursed silently. "Ok. I got another question then." I looked around, leaned forward and asked him quietly: "Do you know the crocodile?"

The barkeeper shook his head again. "Never heard of."

I cursed again. But, however. I had to keep looking. That guy had a diamond, and if I understood Leonardo right, he wanted it to give to somebody named `Kraang´. But, he wanted to give the fake diamond to that Rookers guy. So that Rookers was in his way and Rookers expected to get a diamond. I smiled. I had to finish my deliver service.

I ran back to the address where Rookers was supposed to live. On my way, I took a little packet out of a trash can; it had the size like the packet with the bomb.

I found the building and rang the doorbell. A man opened. I smiled. "Excuse me; I need to talk to Mr Rookers." The man looked at me like he suspected me to attack him. . "I am Mr Rookers. Did the crocodile send you? You're pretty late." And really, he looked like he had been up all night, waiting for his precious stone to come. I nodded. "He gave me a packet to deliver. And he said I could demand 25$ from you for it." I made a break. "But I don't need the money anymore. I'll give you the packet if you give me the information you have about the crocodile. Who he is, what he does and how he got his hands on the stone." Mr Rookers looked at me. I could see that he felt nervous, I supposed because he didn't expect me to know about the stone. "How'd you know about the stone? Like I know the crocodile, he wouldn't tell every random girl such important information." Like I said. I tried to look self-confident and cool. "Let's just say, I got some very good sources." Mr Rookers started to twist a pen in his hands. "I don't know much about the crocodile. I offered him a sum of money if he'd sell me a diamond, and he accepted. That's it." I threw the packet in the air and catched it again. "How did you find him?"

Rookers watched the packet. "A man served as a messenger. I just met the crocodile once in a café, after he told me the date. That's it."

I still wasn't ready to let the bomb set off. "Who was that messenger?" Mr Rookers looked more and more angry. "Stop your games, girl! Give me stone, or something happens! You shouldn't put your nose into this anyway." I stayed calm. I used to deal with drugs for a while –before the police got a bit too curious - and I knew how to deal with such situations."If you won't deal with me, I can tell the police a nice story about a stolen diamond and a guy who bought it. " Mr Rookers stared at me like he wanted to kill me. I smiled. "By the way, if I'm not wrong, some of my friends are waiting for me at the corner over there. So how about speeding this up?" This was a simple bluff. He wouldn't look to check, because with that he'd show insecurity, but he wouldn't dare to do anything to me if he didn't knew whether there really someone waited outside or not either.

"So?" I leaned at the wall. Mr Rookers sighed. "It's a barkeeper. His name's Rick, and the bar's called `Rick's Club´. But I don't guarantee you anything, got it?" I wasn't confident yet. "This is New York. There are about thousands of bars, and I don't intend to look for this one for the rest of my life. Give me the address." Mr Rookers wrote something on a piece of paper. "I'll give you the address in exchange for the stone." I smiled. That guy wasn't that stupid.

"Prove me you're not lying and that this is the real address." I studied his mimic. Nothing suspicious. "How am I supposed to prove you that?", answered Rookers. True.

"Well, then. I'll just take your word. But if this won't lead me to this Rick, I'll go straight to the police, got it?" I reached out for the paper. "First, the stone." I smiled. "OK." I handed the packet over and took the paper, and then I started running. "HEY! STOP IT - " I didn't stop, I just ran, ran,ran. Some blocks further I stopped to catch my breath.

I gasped for air, but at the same time, I had to laugh so hard I couldn't stand straight. I just couldn't get the image of Rookers face out of my head, when I thought about how he must've reacted when he opened the packet and found nothing but a regular stone with a paper wrapped around it, saying: _To your luck, I already accidently set off the bomb the crocodile send you._

Next, I had to find this `Rick´. I looked at the address; hopefully it was the true address. I thought over it for a second. If I hurried, I could be there tonight by foot. I looked up. The sun already started to rise. Or maybe not tonight. I started moving. I didn't want exactly meet some cops at 4 a.m. and explain what the heck I was doing here.

For a second I pitied Rookers – he stayed up the whole night waiting for me. But my compassion had its limits.

I yawned. An all-nighter, spended with running through NYC, meeting mutant turtles and delivering a bomb. It just sucked. And now, that my adrenalin was nearly gone, I felt so tired I could just fall down and sleep on the pathway.

I forced myself to move. Maybe I could find a little comfortable corner to sleep…just for some hours.

I woke up in the middle of the day. The corner I've slept in wasn't exactly comfortable, and my whole body hurted. Plus, I was hungry and thirsty. But at least nobody mugged me, so my 25$ were still in my jacket.

I decided it was best to have breakfast first – better said lunch – and after that to continue looking for the crocodile.

When I spended the money, I thought for a second about my awkward situation. I never did something just for a favor. I always wanted to have something immediately, like money or a drink. It was just too risky to rely on the word of someone else. But I was really helping those turtle guys, taking nothing than their word that they owe me some favors.

What the heck was going on with me?

It took me two hours to find Rick. The address was right, and I managed to talk to Rick, but that stubborn idiot refused to tell me anything as long as I wouldn't pay for it. There was no way to threat him; after I tried to pull off my police story, a giant guy kicked me out of the bar.

It was afternoon, and I had no idea what to do. I couldn't hang around the bar, because this giant guy told me that he'd rip my head off if I wouldn't get lost – seriously, I'd like to keep my head on my shoulders, so I decided to stay away from him, at least for the moment.

What should I do?


	7. Chapter 7

I decided it would be best to keep my ears open, maybe I could gather some useful information. I didn't dare to get even near Rick's Bar again, but maybe I could listen out the guys who went there in and out.

Two hours later I felt exhausted and down. Nobody, really nobody could tell me anything useful – couldn't or simply wouldn't. I glared at the clock of the shop towards me. 9 p.m.. If I wanted to be on time, I had to get going. Though I didn't want to tell the turtles I didn't get real close to the crocodile.

The address Leonardo gave me was a pretty far away, and the streets were full. But I didn't need to take the main streets, so I made it in time – ok, a little late, but in time for my standards.

I felt slightly nervous – I remembered clearly how the situation escalated the last time – and looked around, to make out the turtles as early as possible. It was dark by then, and the side street, in which I was waiting for them, was narrow and quiet. It was the perfect place to do something horrible.

I shook my head to get those thought out of my mind.

"Rose?" I jumped, my heart raced. Leonardo stepped out of the shadow. _ Where did he come from?,_I thought. _Scary. _ "Hi Leonardo. Where are your brothers?" I looked around, but there was only one masked turtle. Leonardo pointed upwards. I looked up and shrieked. The turtles were at the fire stage, and Michelangelo grinned down at me. I stared at them. "How long have you guys been up there?" "Not that long.", said Michelangelo. "Just like five minutes. Why – are you scared of us?" I was glad those guys couldn't read my thoughts, because yes, I was scared of them.

"Nope.", I answered to the orange masked turtle. "Just curious." "Can we go down to business now?" Instinctually, I shrieked at the sound of Raphael's voice. He sounded pissed. The red cladded turtle sat on a step of the stage, his hand twirling a sai. Leonardo shot him a look, but said nothing. Perhaps because Raphael was right. "So, did you find out where `the crocodile´ is?" I pulled a face. "I tried, but at one point, I couldn't go any further. Wanna say, I found a guy who works as messenger between `the crocodile´ and clients, but that dork refuses to give me any information as long as I'm not paying. And he wasn't talking about $5." I told them everything I knew about Rick and his bar.

I stopped. The turtles stayed silent. I watched them nervously. Finally, Leonardo spoke. "Maybe we should visit this Rick. And make him tell us what he knows." Raphael agreed. "If he refuses to sing immediately, I'll talk to him." He made an unequivocal gesture with his fists.

This could be the part on which I turned and never heard of them again. But I stayed. Don't ask me why. I waited while Leonardo explained his plan to his brothers.

"Like this, we can grab this crocodile even before the two days are up.", Leonardo ended. His brothers nodded in agreement. They were about to move, when Raphael realized I was still there. "What are you still doing here?", he asked. "I thought you know we won't pay you with money, and that's the only thing that counts for ya, isn't it?"

Honestly? I had no clue what I should respond. So I just answered the first thing that came to my mind. "I want to go too." The turtles stared at me like I just told them I actually was a guy from the future or something. "You want what?!"

I shrugged my shoulders. "This guy promised me $25 I didn't get, and this might be my chance to get them." Next to a lot of other useful things a guy who sold stolen diamonds could have.

"No way. She isn't coming." Raphael sounded determined. "Taking April on a mission: Ok. But not a total stranger girl without any martial artist training." I squeezed my eyes. "You guys promised me a favor."

Leonardo shook his head. "I'm sorry, but this ain't something I can grant you."

I should've known it. And honestly, I didn't expect them to let me go with them anyway. Still, I was disappointed. Leonardo and Raphael moved on, Donatello close up. Michelangelo stayed for a second, shrugged and said quietly: "Don't take it personally." Then he was off too.

I moaned, but however. I turned and left the place.

The next day, I didn't feel as bad as usual. In fact, not even quite. I didn't drink the last night, and it hadn't been too cold. I went through the streets, trying to steal some money. I still had something left from my $25, but it wasn't much.

I got burned like three times – wanna say, somebody realized I was trying to steal from him and I had to get lost before some cops appeared – until I managed to steal a purse from an old woman. I smiled. She wouldn't realize it was stolen even when she'd find out it was gone. She'd probably think she forgot it at home. The purse wasn't as full as I hoped – no credit cards to sell, but at least some money. Breakfast time.

One bad thing about being a street kid was that I couldn't just go into some café and buy me whatever I want. The people around me see I am from the street – and they don't want me to be there. Under bad circumstances, they call the cops, telling them I stole/skipped school/disturbed other guests – even if I was simply sitting in a corner and drinking a coffee.

So, normally I bought my food at stands – kebab, hot dogs, whatever. Or coffee from an automat. Never something fancy. Heck, the last time I ate something normal was – never mind, I don't remember anyway.

I went through the city, always keeping my eyes open for any signs of cops or worse – guys I still owed money - and ate my kebab.

"Yeah, really nice. Yes, Sammy is doing well."

I dropped my kebab by the sound of the voice. Panic-stricken, I looked for a place to hide, but I was in the middle of a pathway – there was nothing. The woman I heard came towards me now, she was turning her mobile off. She hadn't realized me yet, but it was only a matter of time. I stepped back. My throat was dry. Why didn't I pay attention about where I was?

She looked up now, striking her hair back behind her ears. And then she saw me.

"Rosalie?"

I stared at her, unable to move. She looked exactly like back then. Well, at least almost. Her hair was thinner, and grey strains I never saw on here proved about the time that past since I saw her the last time. She was still thin like she never ate something, and her wide open grey eyes brought back memories I thought I already forgot.

Those eyes were mine.

I turned around and ran. I didn't care where, as long as my feet took me away from her.

Away from this woman I used to call "Mom".


	8. Chapter 8

The trash bin fell down with a loud shatter. I kicked it again and again, and the hollow, metallic sound echoed through the alley. I stopped, breathing slightly harder than normally. Kicking or simply destroying things always made me feel better.

Why? Why did I have to meet her again? I glared at the trash bin; like it was its entire fault; like it arranged the meeting between me and _her._ I kicked it again.

I knew there was no reason to overreact like I did. Normal kids would even be happy to see their mother after years again, years without any contact, without any live signal. I leaned against a wall behind me. Heck, I knew like dozen of kids or teens who would cut off a limb to see their mother.

_Yes, Sammy is doing well._ Remembering what she said, a giant lump appeared in my throat, and I swallowed.

Sammy.

My little beloved sister Sammy.

The yearning I had for my sister was so intense that I had to sit down. My little, cute Sammy. She would turn nine that year. I could imagine her, with her light brown long curled hair, always bound to two ponytails, her big eyes; grey, but warmer than mine. Her laugh, whenever something funny happened.

I stared at the grey New York sky. It's been four years since I saw her the last time. I never visited her after I ran away – I was afraid she would make me stay.

I hugged my knees. I wasn't just afraid of that. I was afraid that with running away, I've thrown her into the hell I lived in before. I shivered. Guiltiness was a bitter feeling, and right then, I felt it inside me like some sort of poison.

I imagined the warm, big eyes of my sister, filled with tears, her voice screaming and crying. Did she hate me?

With a sudden move, I stood up. No, I didn't want to think about it. Never again. I started running, no matter where. It was almost dark by then. The time passed by surprisingly fast. Where were the hours of afternoon? I've spend them running through the streets, trying to get as far away from _her_ as possible. I slowed down. Some teen girls passed me; I heard them laugh. I envied them. I, too, wanted to have a home; a caring, normal family.

I passed a homeless. His eyes looked like everyone's on the street; passive, absent, dull. Looking at my reflection on a window, I knew my eyes looked the same. But, in contrast to the most of the other people I met, I chose this life. Running away was always my own decision. I stared at the other me, remembering that day.

I was only eleven back then, and I had no clue about how dangerous the street was. I only knew I wanted to leave that place; I was dead sure that every place would be better than the place I called "home". I had packed my bag with some food, my pocket money (about $15) and a stuffed animal. It was the only toy I really loved. A small, fluffy dog I used to call "Boo". Whenever I would be scared of monsters or something else, I squeezed it and was sure it would protect me.

However, I waited until my mother – who was "Mom" for me back then- left for work. My stepfather was in some bar, drinking away the money my mother earned. When she left, I left my room. Sammy – she was five back then – saw me. "Where you goin', Rosie?", she asked me. If there was a point of hesitation in the whole action, it was when she asked me that. I knew that I wouldn't meet her ever again if I left. And I didn't want to leave her behind. But taking her with me? I was naïve, yeah, but not stupid enough to take a five-years-old girl with me. So I just answered "School." And left.

"Move!" I shrieked, and the rude guy pushed me aside to pass me. I glared at him and his girl, but I wasn't about to pick a fight. I simply moved on. The streets were filled with normal humans, humans who enjoyed their evening. Lovey-dovey couples, bunches of teens who were acting all cool and gangster, simply humans in their free-time. And, unseen for those who didn't care, homeless people of every age – kids, teens, adults.

This area wasn't exactly the place where I used to hang out, but it was familiar. I even had some sort of friends here. I moved into a side street, looking out for a certain girl. And, yes, I found her.

Caitlin wasn't exactly a homeless girl. She worked as a waitress since she got kicked out from her father. We met like a year ago, when she caught me stealing from the bar she worked in. She didn't bust me, and so we became sort of friends. She was some years older than me, if I remembered right, she was 17 by then.

I found her at the backdoor of the bar, smoking. She wore a green apron, beneath it a skirt and a top. Considering her style, I've expected her to be some sort of a prostitute when we first met – she slapped me for that. I grinned when I thought back to that.

"Hey Cate.",I greeted her. She looked slightly surprised. "Hi Rose. It's been as while. How are ya doin'?" I shrugged. "As always. I get by with stealin' n' stuff." Caitlin grinned. "I hope you're not only here to get a hideout from some hideous jerks?" I chuckled. For a second, I had thought about telling her about the turtles, but I decided not to. I didn't want her to think I was high. "Nah, just wanted to see a familiar face once in a while." She grinned. I leaned next to her against the wall. "How's your stuff goin'?" Caitlin smiled. "I met a gorgeous guy, Ryan. I'm gonna move into his flat. " Caitlin used to live in a backroom of the bar, and whenever we met, she complained about it, dreaming of a new place to live. "You want to move to a guy's place? You sure?", I asked. Caitlin was a big girl, yeah, but still. "Yep.", she answered. "Ryan is…well, he's just a really nice guy I'd like to spend my life with." I shook my head. "You're seventeen, Cate." She threw the cigarette onto the ground and stepped on it. "I was through that a thousand times. I trust him, and I'm sick of living here." I looked at her. She wasn't like me, always sleeping in a different corner, running away from everything and everybody. But she was through hard times too. Her father didn't just kick her out, no, he forbids her whole family to contact or help her in any way. She hasn't heard of her siblings, her relatives or even her friends since years. Not like her father forbid her friends anything – but they didn't seem to care that one of their clique suddenly disappeared.

I stood up, turning to leave. "Well, you're a big girl and you know what's best for you. I guess we won't meet up here again, huh?" Caitlin shook her head. "I'm moving the day after tomorrow." She looked at me. "It was nice to see you again, Rose." I smiled. "I hope the best for you. Bye." I turned and left. I wasn't sad – I always knew Caitlin wouldn't stay forever there, and I was pretty surprised to find her there anyway – but I felt something like regret. She'd been the closest thing I had to a friend.

The night was still young, and I decided to drink. I've been thinking too much the last hours. I took my money – or what was left – and went into the first bar I saw. Inside I bought a bottle of vodka. (Thanks, Russia, for inventing this stuff!) I wasn't in the mood to stay inside and left afterwards.

Drinking the bottle, I watched out for cops.

The next hours can be skipped. I drank, and because I always reacted easily to alcohol, I got drunk (something I expected from the start). Fact was, I ended up in a side street, not that far away from the place where I met the turtles the first time.

Drunk as I was, I started to talk to myself. "Heck, I should've asked Cate where she's gone live…He, what for?" I started to laugh. "What for?" I laughed harder. "Shit day. Shit mom. Why did I meet her? Sammy. Sammy, Sammy, Sammy…" I was still laughing, but somewhere along there I started to cry. Sammy.

I sat down – ok, it was more that I leaned against a wall and let myself fall – and cried.

"Rose?" I didn't know how long I've been sitting on the ground, crying like an elementary school kid. I looked up to see the face which belonged to the familiar voice.

"Raphael." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. The turtle stared at me, and this second I realized I had to look horrible. I turned my face. "What'cha want?", I asked. My voice was more a mumbling. I realized that I still had the bottle in my hand; it wasn't empty, but the most part was missing. I stared at it. I didn't remember drinking so much.

"What the heck happened to ya?" I didn't answer. I lifted the bottle to drink some more. But Raphael's green, three-fingered hand gripped the bottle. "Oh no, you don't."I glared at him, though my sight was a little blurred and a weird pounding inside my head required most of my attention. "Gimme the bottle.", I said. But Raphael took the bottle – I had no chance to hold it – and emptied it. I stared at the vodka on the street. "Idiot.", I said. "I wanted to drink that." For some weird reason, I didn't get angry. There were times I went berserk just because of a jar. But that day, I felt so exhausted from all the crying, all the guiltiness, all the…ahh, the heck with it.

Raphael's hand waved in front of my eyes. "You still with me?" I looked at him. "Mhm-mh." Raphael pulled a face. "Tell me what happened. Why are you sitting here, all drunk and crying?" I didn't answer. It wasn't any of his business.

Raphael sighed. He murmured something that sounded like "stubborn idiot" and "not like I care". This moment, his mobile rang. (_Weird.,_ I thought._ Why does a mutant turtle have a mobile, but I don't?_) Raphael answered the phone. "Yeah? Hi Donnie." He listened for some seconds. "Thoughts so. Tell him I'm not up for trouble. No." He looked at me. "It's more like I found somebody." He listened again. "Believe it or not, but this time it's not a Kraang nor a Foot. It's our little friend Rose. Maybe you wanna see her – she looks horrible, and I'm not a doc. Nah, no injuries. Seems more like she's drunk. Yeah. See ya." He dropped the call. "I hope this time you won't be so impolite like last time." I ignored him.

Raphael sat down in front of me. I didn't care too much. The pounding inside my head grew to a headache. Everything around became surreal. And then I got sick. _Are you fucking kidding me?_, I thought. Maybe I overdid it with the vodka.

Something touched me at my shoulder. I jumped and lifted my head. Raphael's arm was stretched towards me, his fingertips had touched me. "Just wanted to make sure you're still conscious.", he said, taking his arm back.

I didn't say anything. My heart beat fast. I couldn't say why, maybe because he scared me for a second. _For a second? I thought I'm scared of those turtle guys …_

I didn't take my eyes off Raphael, and he fixated me with his. I was impressed by the bright green of his eyes. With the red mask, it gave him something dangerous, but not in an ugly way, no - it was more…beautiful.

I stared at him, fascinated by the fact he was a mutant with such beautiful eyes. Though he had a lot more of a human: His anatomy, his character, and the weapons. The only things that were different were his skin color, his shell, the number of his fingers and toes and the missing of a nose.

I continued to look at Raphael until his brothers showed up. Leonardo, Donatello and Michelangelo. Donatello bowed down to me. "Hello Rose. How are you doin'?" I stared at him. _Leave me alone, dork._ Donatello sighed. "Raph, do you know how much she drank?" Raphael shook his head. "There was a vodka bottle, most of it empty, and I spilled the rest."

Again, I felt the sickness. I covered my face with my hands, hoping it would go away. "Rose?", I heard Donatello's concerned voice. "Are you feeling sick?" I nodded. Silence. Then Donatello said: "I suppose we'll take her to our lair, she gotta sleep for a while. And I think I had some aspirin somewhere…"

That was how I ended up in the turtle lair some time afterwards.


	9. Chapter 9

Leonardo loved Space Heroes. Michelangelo loved video games. Donatello loved science and this April-girl. Raphael loved…well, he seemed to love training and pick on his brothers, especially Michelangelo.

It's been like three days in which I was kept down in the lair. Of course, I could've escaped somehow. But the first day I had a bad hangover, and I wasn't in the mood for idiotic actions – though staying with a bunch of mutants could be considered an idiotic action – and the second day…well, I wasn't really fond of the idea to leave the comfortable couch for a cold surface.

The second day I've been in the lair, I've met April. A pretty redhead, carrying a laptop with her. I didn't decide if I liked her or not. I mean, yes, she was nice and very worried about me though she saw me the first time, but still. I got the thought she might've been a little jealous, after all she was the only human friend of the turtles before I appeared. Well, if she was, she was a damn good actress.

April got lessons from the giant rat – erm, Master Splinter – to become a kuno…whatever, a female ninja. I've been surprised. She was a normal teenager from what I could tell, what did she want to become a ninja for?

Well, that wasn't any of my business. Anyway…

"Hey Rose!" I looked up. The only one who shouted like that was Michelangelo. "What's it, Michelangelo?", I asked. The turtle with the orange mask pulled a face. "I told you, call me Mikey." I rolled my eyes. "I wanted to ask you if you want to play some video games with me.", Michelangelo continued. I raised an eyebrow. "You and your brothers were training just some minutes ago. And now you want to play video games?" Michelangelo looked at me with his puppy eyes. I sighed. "Ok, ok, just don't look at me like that." I didn't like what was going on. I didn't mean the video games – they were sort of fun. I meant Michelangelo's behavior. The whole mutant-family, including April, was really, really nice. It was almost scary. (Except maybe Raphael's behavior, he was really rude, and that was why his behavior calmed me always down.) And I had to admit, they weren't scary at all. (As long as they didn't attack you for being a criminal.) But when Michelangelo behaved like that, I had the feeling he was trying to get information out of me. I didn't know what of the things I knew could be so interesting, but it made me nervous anyway.

We played for a while - Michelangelo let me win some times - and he gave his best to make me talk. Unimportant things, stuff you say to each other when you play games together.

Michelangelo was a really funny guy, and his good mood was catching. He made me actually talk and laugh, but whenever I catched myself doing that, I stopped. I didn't know why. It was simply that I couldn't relax completely. There was something telling me _Stay alert. He might be your enemy. Why did he ask that? Does he want to harm you? Don't tell him that! It's none of his business!_ Inside me.

"He, Mikey, can I join in?" I looked up. It was sort of surprising, Raphael rarely joined into a video game. Michelangelo nodded. "There are some controllers left, plug one in.", he said. He paused the game. Raphael plugged his controller in and sat down next to me. From now on, I lost the whole time. Raphael wasn't as good as Michelangelo, but he was way better than me and more importantly – he didn't let me win. While playing, I carefully tried not to look at Raphael.

It was pretty easy to explain why. I clearly remembered how I've been staring at him, back then, when he found me drunken in the alley. He must think I was an idiot, or even worse…fact was, I've acted very, very embarrassing.

"Pizza!" Michelangelo's head jumped up when he heard Leonardo shout the magical word. Though all four turtles loved pizza with an obsession that was much like the one others had for computers or drugs, Mikey definitely loved it the most. He would die for a slice of it.

To my surprise, Raphael stayed. He loved pizza too, but still, he stayed. I looked at him. He turned his head towards me. "What?", he asked. I turned red and looked away. "Nothin'.", I murmured.

"Hey guys, you're not hungry?" Michelangelo asked, in both of his hands a slice of pizza. Raphael grinned. "Yes, I think I'm hungry." He said, and faster than Michelangelo could protest, he took both slices of pizza."Hey!", Michelangelo shouted. Raphael turned towards me. "D'you want a slice?" I nodded and took the slice – I was hungry, and plus, it was fun to tease Michelangelo.

Later that day, or better said in the evening, the turtles went up for their patrol. Master Splinter was mediating in his room. April was out too. The lair was quiet. Again, I knew that I might leave. But I didn't want to.

My sight wandered around the lair, and it stopped at the punching bag. It had the shape of a human and some weapons were stuck in it. I stood up from the couch and listened nervously for any noises. Everything was quiet.

I walked towards it. The doll was bigger than I was, and I could imagine that it was a real human. I shook my head.

Again, I listened for any noises. And again, it was quiet. Some hours ago, I've watched Raph train. I tried to imitate his position, so I took my arms up like he did. I tried to remember how he had moved, and slowly punched the bag. It was surprisingly hard; from how easily the boys punched it I always thought that it was softer.

I "trained" like that for some time, slowly trying to copy every move Raphael had done before. But, I had to admit, I was bad at it. Though it was sort of …fun.

After a while I stepped back. I wasn't exhausted, but I was afraid somebody might come and catch me doing that. I could imagine how embarrassing that would be.

"You're doing it wrong." I jumped and turned around quickly. Raphael stood behind me, leaning against the wall, fixating me with his green eyes. I felt my face turning red.

"How long…how long have you idiot been standing there?!" My voice was shaking a little bit, but that was it. I turned my head so he wouldn't see my red face and crossed my arms in front of my chest.

Raphael walked towards me and took his fighting position. "You have to bow your knees a bit, otherwise you won't be able to hold your balance. Are you left- or right-handed? " I looked surprised at him. He seemed to be serious. "Uhh…I'm right-handed." Raphael nodded. "Like me. That means your left hand is the guiding one." My whole face must've been a question mark, because Raphael sighed. "Your left foot is the front one, as your left hand is. Your stronger hand, the right one, is behind. You use it to throw a hard and more effective punch than with the left hand. The guiding hand is guiding, wanna say, you aim with it." He punched in the air; two times with his left hand, the third time he made a little jump forward and punched with his right hand. He looked at me. "Got it?" I copied his position. He corrected it like six times, and then he started to show me the basics. Jab, straight, uppercut, and hook. And some kicks.

After an hour or so he said "That's enough for today. Tomorrow, you can practice. I won't teach you more until you can do everything perfect, got it?" I nodded. I felt sweaty, and I wished I had clothes to change. Nevertheless, I felt good.

"Raphael?", I asked. He grunted, which I put down as 'Yes?'. "I wanted to ask you, why'd you come back earlier? I mean, your brothers are still out." He gave me a short look. "We already finished our patrol, and I wasn't in the mood for observing the Kraang's place. So I decided to come back earlier." I looked at him. In the time I was here I figured out there were Kraang and somebody called Shredder, who made problems. But I didn't get what it was about.

"You mind explaining the whole situation to me?", I asked. I was getting curious. Raphael came out of the kitchen with a bottle of water. He looked at me for some seconds, then he shrugged and said: "Sure. Why not.

Like you maybe got, we're mutants. The mutagen, that made us to what we are, was brought on the earth by the Kraang – they're aliens from another dimension. They're trying to turn the earth into another planet, a planet they can live on. But first, they're grabbin' scientists to modify the ooze. " I stared at him. "_Aliens?!_"Raphael grinned. "Alien robots, to be accurate. We were the same when we found out." I shook my head. "And what's with Shredder? Is he…some sort of Alien too?" Raphael laughed. "No. His real name is Oroku Saki and he's after Master Splinter. I think `the love of a woman´ got between them. Fact is, he killed Master Splinter's family, and he's gonna pay for it." I swallowed. To tell from Raphael's voice, this Shredder would definitely pay for it. I would hate to be him.

I thought about the information I just got. It all sounded weird, but considering I lived in a lair of some mutants in the sewers of New York, everything could be possible.

"What about April. I mean, did you guys grab her from the street too or what?" Raphael gave me an amused look. "April? Nah, we didn't grab her from the street, after all we're not an orphanage. No, we met her when we were topside for the first time, the Kraang kidnapped her father. We're helping her to get him back." I stared at him. "April's father got kidnapped by aliens?" Raphael nodded. "As I said."

This was very…I think "weird" is a fitting word. Aliens who kidnapped fathers and mutated turtles to – well, mutant turtles, a guy who wanted to kill the master,… For a second I wasn't sure if this whole thing wasn't some sort of realistic but weird hallucination I got from drugs or something. But, I didn't take drugs in the last time…

"So?" I looked up. Obviously, Raphael had asked me something. "What "So"?" I asked back. He rolled his eyes. "I asked you if you think that we're a bunch of retarded monsters." I stared at him. If he'd asked me that question when we first met, I would've answered "Yes". But not now.

"I'm a fifteen- years-old, homeless girl, drunk every night and not able to manage my own survival. Who am I to tell you what's retarded?", I said. It was what I thought. Those guys were mutants, not the most tolerated minority group in New York, and yet they managed to build up a life – not normal, but a life. I'd be probably dead by then if those guys hadn't shown up. So, who was I to tell them anything?

Raphael looked surprised for a second, then he grinned. I felt my cheeks grow warm and turned away.

"How 'bout tellin' me something about you now?", he asked. I was surprised. "Y-You wanna know something about my life?", I asked unbelieving. Nobody ever asked for something about my life – not even Caitlin.

Raphael raised an eyebrow. "'Course. You asked me, I answered. So why not the other way 'round too?" I stared at my hands. _Yeah ._I thought. _Why not the other way 'round too?_ I hesitated for a second, then I said: "There's nothing interesting about my life. It's something maybe a million kids went through." Raphael looked at me. "So what? I'm not asking you for a super dramatic story, I simply wanna know something about you. You know, like friends?"

I leaned against the wall. "So, what do you wanna know?" Raphael sighed. "How about your family? Or the reason why you live on the street? Or why you get drunk that often? Or why you have no parents?"

True. I've told them before I hadn't parents. I felt uncomfortable about that lie, but I daren't tell the truth. So I decided to, well, change my past a little. I looked at my feet.

"My father left my mother -" I stopped. I just decided to ignore the fact I had a little sister."He left when I was still young." I was young, so that fact was true. "My mother found herself a new guy, a drunken bastard who soon after he we moved into his flat decided he could beat the crap outta her." I could almost taste the disgust and hate that swung in my voice. I narrowed my eyes. "He, umm, sort of didn't like me, and they decided to abandon me. I came to an orphanage, and from there I landed on the street." I was confident with my version of the past. I really could've happened like that, so I didn't think that Raphael or anybody else would ever find out. Of course, the end was mostly made up, after all I left because of my own, but I kept quiet about that – I didn't want to tell anybody why exactly I left. But, I didn't think that they would ever find out. I looked up. "To your other questions: I decided to live on the street because I wanted my freedom. And I drink simply because it's a habit: I started it because I was curious and never stopped." The first one, about why I lived on the street, was true. The second – let's say, it was the truth, but not the whole.

Raphael looked at me. "Man, you've gone through a lot of stuff." He smiled at me. "But don't worry, you got me and my brothers at your side now, so don't think about those guys who abandoned you."

He left for a shower. I followed him with my eyes, and for the first time, I felt uncomfortable for not telling the truth. For the first time, I felt bad to have lied to somebody.


	10. Chapter 10

I shivered. Pulling a face, I went on. It wasn't the first time that I wished to be down in the sewers, at the turtles' lair. I sighed when I thought about Michelangelo, playing video games and eating pizza. My stomach growled. O man.

I left the lair a week ago. Not like I wanted. Or that somebody even made the slightest thought in that direction.

I woke up, and then I had this feeling. Like _home_. I knew that I could stay and feel comfortable and secure. But the same morning, I left. I didn't want to give up my freedom, nor did I want to become a pest for the turtles.

So there I was. Back on the streets, and I felt a strange mixture of regret and happiness. Regret because I was sure to never see the turtles again, happiness because I was back in my freedom. A harsh, dirty and dangerous freedom, but freedom.

"Damn brat! Get lost!" I ran. The angry voice sounded like 'I'm gonna call the police!'. And no, I didn't do anything. I just dared to visit a shopping centre. I spat on the ground. An old woman stared angrily at me. I stared back. She moved on, saying something that sounded like 'lazy street brat'. I snorted.

Humans were strange beings. Telling us to go and look for work, but not letting us to the places where we could find work.

However. It was late afternoon, and the sun was about to set. I was hungry, had no money and some damn bastard stole my lighter. The only stuff I had left was the knife and the clothes on my body. Not the most comfortable situation, but complaining wouldn't help.

I went on, hoping to find somebody I could steal from. Then, I heard them. Purple dragons. It was easy to recognize them, they're not the smartest and pretty noisy, and so I heard them long before they could see me. I hurried through the streets – the Purple Dragons were almost famous for mugging little girls in groups of at least five, heck it, I heard they attacked _a blind guy_ in a group. So, I was naturally not in the mood to meet them. Who'd want to end up like that girl I met months ago, all beaten up, nothing with her than some rags; shocked by the things they did to her? And I wasn't only talking about mugging and beating up.

I turned into a street, and – damnit, who the heck is pulling the strings in this damn situation?! –of course it was a dead end. I tried to hide behind some trash bins, hoping the Purple Dragons hadn't seen me before.

"Hey, cutie! Wanna play?" My heart stopped for a second. I prepared to scream as loud as I could, hoping _somebody_ would hear it. I already opened my mouth, when I heard somebody cry.

The Dragons weren't after me.

I felt relieved. I was safe, from what it seemed they hadn't seen me, and met someone else instead. I would wait here until they were done with that girl, after that I would get lost and never ever set foot in this area.

"NO! Please, I'm begging you, leave me alone!" It was a girl. Screaming, begging. Nothing new. I could clearly remember the first days on the street – I was shocked by the violence. But you get used to it, at least if you want to survive.

I felt nervous. I didn't know why. I wasn't in a situation like this the first time, but still…

The girl screamed again. I knew how she felt.

The turtles would've helped her.

Raphael would.

I stood up, my whole body shaking, and moved towards the screaming of the girl. Taking out my knife, I fought for a confident and strong attitude.

I could see them now. Four men, every single of them with the tattoo of a dragon, and a little girl. I supposed that she was younger than me. Maybe thirteen. Her big brown eyes were full of tears, and she was pale. She was kneeling on the ground; one of the men had grabbed her hair and pulled it. The others laughed.

"Stop it." My heart was beating fast, and my hands felt sweaty and cold. So cold. The men looked up, but they didn't move even a finger. The girl was still crying. "I already called the police, so let go of her or you will get damn trouble." My mouth was dry, and my voice sounded higher than usually. The men started laughing. "Ohh, really?", one of them said. I swallowed when I saw the knife in his hand. _Please don't use it! _I cried inside.

The Purple Dragons let off the girl. She stayed on the ground, still crying. I could hear her sobs. Four men. Four men against me. I started to wish that I never started this whole, stupid action, but it was too late. Problems were already on the way.

I backed off. But I knew that I couldn't run away. The girl was still there, if I'd run away, they would get back to her. The men knew too that I hadn't a single place to go. I swallowed. I had hoped that this wouldn't turn out like that. But, like I mentioned long ago, luck didn't come often down here to the street kids.

"I got the feeling you wanna play, girl. How does dancing sound to you?" He laughed dirty, then he made a move with his hand towards one of his friends, and that guy – that guy showed an iron staff to me. I swallowed again.

This would be so not fun.

The staff started to fly towards me. I tripled back, almost losing my balance. I moved back, avoiding the staff. Fortunately, they were just playing. I was sure that they would've already broken my legs if they would be serious.

Again, I avoided the staff, but this time, one of those guys changed his position and pushed me. _They're pushing me into the dead end!_, I thought, and panic started to overwhelm my mind. I didn't pay enough attention, and the staff hit me hard. I fell on the ground, crawling back so the staff wouldn't hit me again.

The men laughed. "Where's your police, darling?", one of them asked. I got back on my feet, but I got pushed back to the ground. Again, I crawled back and afterwards got back on my feet. The men laughed harder. I backed off, when I suddenly felt the wall behind me.

I was caught.

The fear I felt inside me made me shake. My breath got even faster, and I could hear my heart beat fast. I felt cold, colder than usual, and yet, I was sweating.

The men came closer. "Well, that was enough dancing, right? How about some fun now?" The one who said that was the one with the knife. He let the blade snap out. That reminded me of my own knife. I just wanted to use it, when he grabbed my wrist and pressed it hardly. I winced and let my knife fall. I felt tears in my eyes and kept them back with all my might.

He grinned. I could see his eyes – they were small and dark. They seemed to burn with greed. I swallowed, for the maybe hundredth time that day. The man whispered: "How about I take a look on your underwear, or even better, what's beneath it." I stopped breathing for a second. I couldn't move in terror.

This guy, he was going to…going to –

"Get away from her, you asshole!" The man turned his head to look who was disturbing him, and what he saw scared him enough to let of me. I fell on my knees. The relief I felt when I heard the voice was almost overwhelming, and tears poured out of my eyes.

"Raphael!", I said. The turtle bashed towards me and the Purple Dragons. He took them out in less than two minutes – they weren't even trying to fight back, he was simply too good. They ran, and the one with the knife shouted: "Freak!" But when he saw Raphael glaring at him, he ran.

Raphael kneeled down to me. "You okay?", he asked. I realized I was crying and wiped my tears embarrassed away, then I nodded. "Yeah. I'm fine." Raphael sighed, stood up and gave me his hand. "How did you get the attention of four Purple Dragons, huh?", he asked me. I took his hand and stayed silent. He stepped back. "Ok, then not. " He sounded angry. "Thanks for saving me. And great timing by the way, though it would've been cooler if you'd shown up like ten minutes earlier.", I said. He laughed.

"Where's the girl by the way?", I asked. Raphael looked at me. "What girl?" I shrugged. "Never mind." So the girl left. Smart chick. She must've realized that once the Dragons would be done with me, she would be the next. In that situation, I would've left too.

"Hey, Rose." I looked up. "Yeah?" Raphael had opened a gully cover to the sewers. "It's getting late. Let's go home." I stared at him. Was he kidding?

He saw my hesitation and sighed. "What's the matter? Now, that you know about us, you can live with us as well, right? After all, you have no place to go."


	11. Chapter 11

"Ouch!" I cried. Rubbing my elbow, I glared at Raphael. "There's no need to break all of my bones, you know?" He only grinned at me, his arms crossed in front of his chest. "Not my fault if you're too stupid to learn it."

Raphael had been training with me for like two hours. He'd told me that first, I had to learn how to fall correctly. Yep. _Fall._ But, ok, he's the one who learned ninjitsu for like 15 years. Since he showed me some punches, he took it as a new hobby to torture – I mean train – me. So, in order to learn how to fall, he started throwing me through the dojo.

It was so not fun. At least not for me.

Raph grinned. "Had already enough?", ha asked. I stood up. "I'm not done yet, buddy."

To sum it up, we trained for another hour, until he said it was enough. By then, every bone in my body, and even bones of which existence I had no clue about before, hurted. Very, very much. But, I could do some rolls and I could fall right, so that I wouldn't break all of my bones when somebody threw me through the dojo.

Raphael was still grinning when we left. I asked him why, and he replied: "I am so looking forward to the face you'll make when we will train tomorrow." Says it and grins even brighter.

The next day would be so not cool.

But, before, I still had that day. I let myself fall down on the couch, a quiet moan coming from my lips. One day, I would definitely kill Raphael for what he did to me.

Moaning, I sat down on the couch. I would definitely make him pay for it, but first, I had to survive his training. "Don't tell me Raph trained with you." I looked up and saw compassion in April's eyes. She sat down next to me. I pulled a face, and she got the message. "Poor you.", she laughed. I rolled my eyes. "Something up?" I asked her. She looked at her fingernails, then she said: "Actually, yes." I waited for her to continue. "You see, you didn't tell me something about you yet. I'm curious. Why are you all on your own?" She looked at me, her big eyes fixating me. I turned my head. After a minute or so I said: "My parents abandoned me."

It was the same lie I told Raphael, and again, I felt uncomfortable about it.

Silently, I waited for April's reaction. When nothing came, I risked a look at her. Her big eyes were full of pity. "I'm so sorry." She said. "What they did was horrible." I kept quiet. The less lies I told, the better. "But, you got me and the guys with you now, so don't you worry, ok?" She smiled at me. I stared at her for a second. Then I nodded.

What a weird girl she was.

But even though I realized that, I wasn't prepared for the next.

It was late afternoon, and I was just back from a trip from the topside. April ran towards me and smiled. "Rose!", she shouted. I immediately had a feeling that something not funny would happen. "Yeah?"I asked April. She grabbed my hands. "I came up with a great plan!" I raised an eyebrow. What was she talking about?

"I'm going to go shopping with you!" April said, her big eyes sparkling. I stared at her, then I shook her hands off. "Sorry, but no." I turned to leave, but April blocked my way. "Why not?" She could see the answer in my eyes. "Don't worry, you don't need money. I have pocket money and I found a shop where the clothes don't cost too much, so I'll be able to buy enough for you." I crossed my arms in front of my chest. "I can't see a need for new clothes." April narrowed her eyes. "But I do." She said cheerfully. "Come on, your clothes are only rags and they smell badly. You need new ones." I admit it, that comment made me feel uncomfortable. I wondered if the others thought too that I was smelly. I didn't look at April, but she took my silence as a 'yes'. She took my arm and walked me to that shop. It was a second hand shop, I've been stealing from shops like that.

Inside, April immediately started to look for clothes. She found more clothes than I ever possessed, and after an hour of comparing, April chose three T-Shirts, two new jeans and a jacket for me. I refused to take the jacket because it wasn't a leather jacket, and mine was totally fine. After an argument with me, April decided to take a hoodie and a belt for me instead of it. "You are so thin that it's practically for sure that the jeans we picked will be too wide." She answered to my question what the belt was for.

On our way back to the lair, I thought about how weird the whole situation was. I mean, I've never been a really social person. I was too fixated on surviving. And now I was going shopping with a friend. I looked at April.

True. She was a friend. As Raphael was. And Leo. And Mikey. And Donnie.

They were friends, real true friends. I felt a lump appear in my throat. I shook my head. Since when was I so sentimental?

"Hey, Rose. Look!" I looked up. We were near the park, and in front of us a cat was busy bringing its kitten into a bush. There were like three of them left, little, still blind kittens. When the cat saw us, she stayed with her kittens, hissed angrily and growled scarier than a lot of dogs.

We stopped. April kneeled down and gave me with her hand the sign to follow her example. I did as she wanted me to, watching her crawl towards the cat which was still growling. I heard April mutter something, most likely to calm the cat down. I followed her quietly. April reached out to touch the cat –

"Ouch!" April backed off, her hand was marked with four stripes. Blood dropped out of them. April cursed quietly. I looked at the cat. She had dark skin, her eyes were sparkling green. I smiled. The green of the eyes reminded me of somebody familiar. "Come here, you idiot. We'll carry your kittens over the street." I murmured. I reached out. The cat growled louder. Then she hit my hand. It hurt, but I didn't pay attention to that but grabbed the cat's neck. She hissed angry and loud. The kittens started crying. I wrapped the fury cat in my jacket and said to April: "Come on, carry the kittens to the bush there before some idiot appears." She looked surprised. "You sure know how to get along with animals, don't you?" I didn't answer; I was busy keeping the little beast in my jacket. April took all three kittens at once, took them all over to the bush and sat them next to the fourth one. The mother of the four hissed even angrier when she saw April touching her kitten. Before she would go totally berserk, I freed her. She was surprised to gain her freedom that easily, but it took her only a second to get that and was with her kitten the next moment. Licking her babies, she glared at us. I laughed quietly, took the bag with my new clothes and tuned around to April. "Quite a monster, isn't she?", I said.

April laughed. "She sure is, this little devil." We walked on. I took a look at the scratches on the back of my hand. It wasn't something serious, so I forgot about it pretty fast while talking with April about everything and nothing.

To sum it up, it was a nice evening we had. When we were back at the lair, each of us went to our rooms.

It may be weird, but yeah, we had our own rooms in the lair. Donnie "built" them, just as the other things in the lair to. At least mostly, Splinter built a lot of the stuff too.

However, when I decided to stay with the turtles, I got a room too, next to April. The rooms of the boys were in another direction, don't ask me why they weren't simply built in a block, I had no clue.

My room was right next to April's, and as the walls were self-made and thin, I could always hear her getting ready for bed. She had the habit to surf in the internet and chat a bit with soe of her friends before she fell asleep, and sometimes I could hear her sing.

Anyway, to get to the point finally, I went in my room, sat down on my mattress, my so-called bed – I doubt anybody else down there had a bed, I was dead sure everybody slept on mattresses – and took out my new clothes. It's been ages since I had new stuff, not to mention stuff that was actually paid. Of course I didn't wear the same things I had on four years ago when I ran away, but the clothes I used to get were always stolen. Always.

And now somebody actually spend money just to buy me new stuff.

I smiled. I would definitely find a way to repay that favor to April. Of course, the only thing she was interested in was getting her father back, and it was clear that I would give all I got to get him back for her, but I thought about something else. Something nice, just to make her happy.

When I was ready for bed and lied in my bed, I thought again about how weird the whole thing was. Instead of worrying about money, being drunk or beaten up I thought how to make a girl happy.

Things definitely had changed.


	12. Chapter 12

I peeked around the corner, my body pressed against the dirty and damp wall. The smell of the sewer was thick and sickening, but I was already used to it, just as to the dirt to my feet.

Raphael stood there, his eyes closed. Carefully, so I wouldn't make any noise, I started moving towards him. Lucky for me, he stood backwards to me, so if I would be silent enough, I could attack him from behind without risking a dangerous fight with him.

I set one foot in front of another, carefully scanning the ground for trash which could cause any noise, as cans or old animal bones.

I almost reached Raphael, only two meters were between us. The only thing I had to do was attacking him. I just lifted my arms to jump on his back, when he suddenly turned around and flipped me like I weight five kilograms instead of 45.

"Nice try, but you're not only too noisy, you're too slow too." He grinned, then he helped me up. I managed to smirk. My entire body hurted.

Raphael had been training with me like this for some weeks. It was supposed to increase my ability to attack silently and fast. I had no clue if it really worked, but I liked those hours of training with Raph.

Of course, they always ended up with me at the ground, but I enjoyed the challenge. It wasn't easy to sneak up on Raph, he had ears like a hawk, or, how Splinter called it, "the sense". Fact was, it was impossible to surprise him.

For that day, Raphael ended the training. We went back to the lair, and on the way, he explained me how you sneak up on somebody in theory; I already heard most of it, but I still paid attention to what he said. Raphael was a pretty good teacher, but he could be a beast, and I knew, if I wouldn't pay attention, he'd find out immediately, and he'd know how to punish me fittingly.

Raphael ended his presentation. We still were pretty far away from the lair. We walked on for a while, when Raph suddenly stopped. "Quiet!" He said. Surprised by his behavior, I looked at him. He had lifted his head, he was concentrated. I tried to hear what he was hearing, but I couldn't hear anything.

After some seconds, Raphael looked up. "You wanna go up?" He asked. "I've had enough of the smelly air down here." I nodded. We went up.

Outside, I deeply inhaled the cool night air. It felt good after the sewers. Don't get me wrong, in the lair, the air was almost clear; Donnie created some genius air system. (When I asked him about that, he said that the smell of mutant sweat in the lair made it impossible for him to work, so he came up with a solution. That turtle was simply incredible.) But in the rest of the sewers, the air smelled badly.

Raph enjoyed the fresh air just as I did. I glimpsed over to him. He had his eyes closed; he was smiling and his whole body position signalized comfort. I looked around. We stood in a narrow alley; some trash bins stood around. I leaned against a wall. I smirked. Leaning against a random wall was something I did a lot, and right then, I realized that I had missed the familiar position. Yes, it sounds weird, but even when I was still a kid I used to lean against a wall as soon as I needed to relax. Afterwards, when I lived on the street, I did it whenever I wasn't moving. I just needed the feeling of something stable at my back.

"Hey Rose." I looked up. Raphael looked towards me, his green eyes sparkling. "Did one of the guys ever take you up on a roof?" I shook my head. "I'm not allowed to participate in your Kraang- or- Foot- beating – up – parties, remember?" Raphael shook his head. "You poor, poor thing. You don't know what you're missing." I rolled my eyes. "Why did you ask in the first place?" Raphael pointed up. "I thought about taking a walk up there. I don't wanna explain some cops why I have a shell on my back." I grinned at the thought of Raph meeting some cops. "Let's go." Raph said. He started climbing a fire escape. I followed him, though I wasn't as fast or as elegant as he was. You could tell he was used to it, while I did it the first time.

When I just had to climb from the banister to the top, I realized something. I tried to follow Raph, and then I became panic. The frightening feeling of falling. I jumped back on the stair, still shocked from the feeling I just experienced. What the - ?

"Hey, what's up? Why aren't you coming?" Raphael looked down to me. I stared back, then I said: "I- I can't." Raphael looked surprised. "What do you mean 'You can't?' " I looked at my feet. "I simply can't, I don't know why."

Raphael stayed silent for a second, then he said, and I swear, I heard amusement in his voice, "Are you afraid of heights?" I was surprised for a second. Was I afraid of heights? I've never been at a high place before, so, to be accurate, I didn't know. Again, Raph spoke. "C'mon, give it a try. You won't fall down."

I didn't want to make a fool out of me, so I climbed on the banister. I tried not to look down, but when I squatted on it, I had a look down.

It was so deep. With a small squeak, I climbed back. I was shaking with my entire body. Raphael had watched me, he jumped down to me. I sat down and leaned against the door behind me, embracing my knees. "I can't go up there." I sat quietly. "Seems like I am really afraid of heights." I felt embarrassed. Raph most likely would think of me as a little girl, afraid of things like darkness or horror stories.

I heard the squeeze of the chair when he crouched. "Don't worry. At the start, Leo was afraid of heights too. You'll get over it." I glimpsed up to him. "Sorry for ruining your fun." I said. Raph snorted. "Nothing to be sorry about." He looked at me. "You wanna give it a try? I can lift you up, so you won't have to look down." I was insecure about that. How was I supposed to get down from there afterwards? Otherwise, I betted that the scenery from up there would be simply awesome. I nodded, then I stood up. "Let's go for it." I said, sounding braver than I was.

Raph grabbed me around my waist, then he lifted me up. It was simply incredible how strong he was. I grabbed the edge of the roof, then I felt how putted my feet on his shoulders, and I stood up. With a great act of strength, I pulled myself half on the roof. From downwards, Raphael helped with lifting my feet higher. Finally, I was safe on the roof. Again, a wave of panic over rolled me. It was frightening, all of the empty space above me. I felt myself shaking.

"You plannin' on stayin' down there for the entire time?" I couldn't say if his voice sounded amused or concerned. Most likely amused. Nervously, I stood up. First, it wasn't that bad. The roof was like every other place on earth too. But then I risked a look over the edge. Deep, deep down there the cars drove. I got the feeling like I would fall down there the next moment. Quickly, I took a step back. The fast move scared me even more, and I sat on the ground, hiding my head in my lap. _I'm scared, I'm scared, I'm scared._

I expected Raphael to say something, but he stayed silent. After some minutes, I looked up. Raphael lied on the roof, just a half meter next to me. I winked. Was he asleep?

He opened an eye. "Are you done with being scared?" I felt my face turn red and turned away. "Idiot." I said.

"Are you mad at me?" I glimpsed over to him. He had lifted the upper part of his body, his green eyes were fixating me. I looked away again.

"Ok, ok, I'm sorry for making fun of you being scared. Happy now?" I was surprised. It wasn't like him to give in that easily. Again, I looked at him. He stood up. "C'mon, I'll show ya something." Ok, I was not only surprised, I was stunned. Since when did Raph behave like that?

After some seconds, I stood up too. He took my shoulders from behind and started guiding me right to the edge of the roof. I started to feel nervous. I could only hope that he wouldn't do something stupid. Right at the edge, Raph stopped. I swallowed. Again, I got the threatening feeling of falling. I wanted to move backwards, but Raphael didn't let me. "Don't look down. Look right in front of you." With a great effort I took my eyes off the abyss and lifted my head.

I was stunned. I've been so busy to be afraid that I didn't realize the incredibly view I had from up here. Hundreds of black skyscrapers, with millions of shining points of light. The river was dark black, but reflecting thousands of little lights. The highway was full with cars, every single of them carrying its lights. It was so dark and so bright at once.

I've lived for my whole life in NYC, but that was the first time that I saw it like that. It's been always a place on earth, nothing more. It wasn't something that beautiful.

I wanted to say something to Raphael, but I realized he wasn't behind me anymore.

"Raph?" I turned. He wasn't there either. "Hey, dude, where are you?" I wanted to take a step, when something suddenly pushed me. I screamed, I was so scared and surprised that I barely started to cry. It took me a second to realize I wasn't falling. The somebody who pushed me had pulled me back the same moment.

And I knew that somebody perfectly.

Raphael laughed so hard he couldn't stand straight. He tried to say something, but ended up laughing again.

I could feel anger in me, anger and embarrassment and disappointment. I turned away from him and looked out for the place where I could leave the roof. Raphael needed five seconds to realize that. "Hey, Rose, wait! C'mon, I was just kidding." He chuckled, but when he saw that I didn't turn around to him, he stopped. He grabbed my shoulder to turn me around, but I pushed his hand aside.

He was surprised; I could see it in his lime green eyes. "Rose? Are you…are you crying?" I stood with my back towards him, and tears poured out of my eyes, making my sight blurred. I was always very emotional; I couldn't get rid of that even on the street.

"Rose, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…I mean, I didn't want to scare you like that…" Again, anger boiled in me up.

"That wasn't funny, damnit!" I could hear my voice break, and I hated myself for it. "That just wasn't funny. I thought that I was actually going to fall. Thanks a lot for this near death experience. Next time, I think I don't want to see what you wanna show me."

I moved on, I didn't want to stand on the top of a roof with him and cry. I couldn't believe everything turned out like that. The times with Raph have always been fun, even when he made fun of me, did something mean or when he let me do something stupid.

But no matter what we did together, I'd never thought that he'd actually go so far just for fun. I'd never thought that he'd actually hurt me.

_That is the fault in the whole thing. I never should've thought like that. If I'd have stayed like before, I would have never had such an expectation. It was my fault to – _

Suddenly, I felt somebody grab my hand. It was a three fingered hand, so I knew it was Raph. I wanted to shake his hand off, but he didn't let go.

"Rose, I am sorry. I won't do it again. So, please, don't go." I turned, surprised by the silent voice of Raphael. His bright, green eyes were begging, and I understood that he was actually sorry. Not like the people who say "Sorry" without meaning it. If Raphael said "Sorry", he meant it.

I wiped the tears out of my eyes – it was so embarrassing that I was such a crybaby – and mumbled: "I'm sorry too. Just don't do it again, 'kay?"

Raph smiled. "I won't." His smile turned into a grin. "But you are a pretty scared-cat, aren't you?" I had to grin. No matter how sorry he was, he was still Raphael, and Raphael made fun of everyone. "Just you wait! I'll find out what you're afraid of." I laughed.

"Oh my, I hope I'm not interrupting something." I stopped laughing immediately. We weren't alone anymore, and whoever our company was, Raphael knew them and he didn't like them – I heard him growl.

The one who spoke was a girl, wearing an armor and a lot of makeup; something gothic-like. In any case, not my type. With her were a bunch of ninjas, all looking the same, wearing masks and weapons.

Raphael hadn't stopped growling. "It's been a while, Karai." _Karai?_ I thought for a while, until I remembered where I heard the name before.

"Shredder's daughter!" I said, remembering Raph's words: _With your lousy skills, Karai will kill you faster than you can say "Damnit". _ I took a step back. So that was the girl who made trouble.

Karai fixated me with her amber eyes. "Who is that? I never saw her before. Maybe another girl important for the Kraang? A second April O'Neil?" Raph took out his sai. "Rose has nothing to do with that, so leave her out of this. I am your opponent right now."

Karai laughed, and while she didn't pay attention, Raph hissed in my direction: "As soon as I got their attention, you run, got that? Try to get into the sewers; I'll catch up to you." I stared at him. Leaving him alone? With eleven opponents? Who did he think I was?

"No way!" I hissed back. "I'm staying with you." Raphael glared at me. "You are go-"

"What's so important to discuss, he?" Raph made a step aside so Karai couldn't see me anymore. "We were arguing over which pizza we'll eat later." He said, twirling his sai. "I nearly forgot that I have to kill you before." I glimpsed over Raph's shoulder to see Karai; she seemed to be slightly angry. "I hope that I'll meet Leo soon, maybe he can do something about your manners." I could see Raph narrowing his eyes. "No need to. It's not like I'll meet a lady up here." He glimpsed over to me. "Or do you want me to speak politely to you, Rose?" I chuckled.

"How rude of you.", Said Karai. She pulled out a short sword and went into fighting position. "Maybe you'll be nicer after I finished you off."

"Not so fast, Karai."

Raph grinned. "You're always spoiling the fun, Leo." Raph's three brothers had appeared at the edge of the roof. "You were late for the patrol. Again." Leo's voice was somewhere between amusement and anger. "We're here to save the day- erm, night!", Michelangelo shouted, while Donatello simply shook his head.

I grinned. Those guys were simply the best.

Karai laughed again. "That's cute. But you always knew how to entertain a girl, Leo." As a response, Leo drove his sword, and without waiting a second, he attacked. Like that was a sign, all the turtles followed his example. The poor foot-ninjas were no match for them. Only Karai seemed to be tougher. She didn't only manage to keep Leo busy, no, she even fought the other turtles too.

Fascinated, I stared at the fight in front of me, when suddenly somebody grabbed my ankle. I squeaked and stared at the Foot-ninja who had grabbed my foot, in his hand a knife. I tried to shake him off, but the only thing I achieved was that I fell down. Horrified, I started to kick the black masked man, hoping that he would let go. He didn't think of it, and to my horror, I realized a second ninja. With my position on the ground I couldn't defend myself against him, and like a second after I realized him, I was already put in an armlock and pressed to the ground. I had no clue what they wanted with me, and I didn't care. I tried to shake the ninjas off another time, but as the only reaction, I got a hurtful hit on the back of my head.

_They're going to kill me._ This thought pounded in my head like an unchangeable fact, and I did the only thing I could think of.

"_RAPH! HELP!"_

I heard Raphael shout something angry, and seconds later, I felt the weight of the ninjas on my back disappear. Raphael pulled me up. "Idiot! Why didn't you run as I told you before?!", he yelled angrily. "They could've done who knows what to you."

He looked pretty mad. I snapped in. "Oh, sorry, I didn't want to jump down a goddamn skyscraper!" Raphael's mad look softened a bit. "I'll get you down from here, and you'll be waiting in the sewers, ok?" First, I wanted to protest as before, but after my experience with the Foot-Ninjas the thought of staying lost a lot of its attractiveness.

I agreed, and Raph lifted me up. I hadn't a clue about that part of the plan before and scared by the sudden move, I grabbed his neck. "Careful, damnit!"


End file.
